Just as promised
by Rouge.Cagalli
Summary: Cagalli ponders on the memories she shared with her Athrun. Now that he's with Meyrin, she doesn't have the right to own him... but she can still love him, can't she?


**A/N: **This is a oneshot songfic dedicated to Gundam Seed's very own Cagalli and Athrun. This song is Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Cool With You". I do not have any affiliations with the said artist or with the makers of Gundam Seed

**Just as promised**

Cagalli x Athrun

It was already half-past eleven in the evening but Cagalli was still up. She had been studying for her entrance exams for college. She will be going to the ORB University. It was all for the best, she'd thought. She will be able to fulfill her dreams and her late father's. But as much as she wanted to pass the exams, still her heart cannot help but look back at everything she had to sacrifice to achieve her goals.

She scanned her notes in Advanced Algebra and saw a picture taken just before graduation attached in the back page. It was she, together with her boyfriend Athrun Zala, and her bestfriend Meyrin Hawke. They all looked so happy together, arms on each other's shoulder, laughing.

"It's been so long," she remarked with a weak smile. "But then again, it all seems like yesterday…"

Cagalli's gaze fell on the image of herself and Athrun. Memories of their times spent flooded back her mind. How he laughed, smiled, and stared at her in such a way that made her feel like snow melting under a spring morning's sunlight. Athrun had that mysterious way of making her happy right from the inside. Cagalli placed the picture next to her heart, imagining it was Athrun she was with.

"If only I could turn back the hands of time…" she sighed, tears welling up from her amber eyes. "I'd go back to when we were like this, Athrun… just like this."

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_**Late last night, I was going through some old things**_

_**When I saw a picture of you and my bestfriend**_

_**It reminded me of days when you are mine**_

_**You had a way that always left me at ease with a smile**_

_**I want those sweet days back again…**_

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As Cagalli savored her memories with Athrun, she went way back to the time they first met. It was in their school's camping trip into a forest. She belonged to a different section from his, she never knew he even existed. But while executing a task given to them, she drifted away from her group and got lost in the thick woods.

She searched everywhere from their campsite but to no avail. It got so dark that she could no longer see where she was going until she saw an ominous figure. She crept closer and closer to it, thinking it was some wild animal. Cagalli attacked it but was quickly outmaneuvered, resulting to her being pinned down to the ground, with a knife down her throat. She screamed her loudest, hoping that someone would save her.

"You're a girl!" the figure said in disbelief. Judging from his clothes, it was a schoolmate of hers who probably, like her, got lost in the woods whilst trying to execute the given task.

"What the--- what did you think I was!" she asked, angrily. She struggled to push him away but she was certainly overpowered.

The boy was still dumbstruck, "But I thought---"

"I don't care what you think!" she said, trying her best to move her neck far from the thin, cold blade. "Now could you please get off me and take that knife back! You could kill me with that!"

Realizing that he was indeed straddled on top of a girl, the boy quickly repelled himself from her. It was only then that Cagalli had a good look at her mysterious attacker. He had blue hair that fell perfectly in place, and deep, green eyes that were still transfixed on her. Finally knocking himself out of the spell of dumbness, he helped Cagalli get on her feet.

"So you're lost too?" he asked her as they moved to walk together.

Cagalli nodded, "I thought they were right behind me, but when I turned to look back, they were all gone. But enough of that, we have to find the campsite, it's getting late."

"Yeah, it is getting late. We should find a place to rest, it'd be more dangerous to wander at night," Athrun suggested.

Cagalli tried to retort but then admitted to herself that his suggestion was better. They walked together and searched for a safe place to spend the night in. Not long after, they found a small cave and decided to stay there for the rest of the evening.

The boy built a campfire in the middle of the cave. Cagalli felt the warmth that emanated in the hearth and she moved in closer to it. She realized that she had been shivering, and so she rubbed her hands together. Suddenly, she felt a big piece of cloth fall on her shoulders. Cagalli looked up and saw that it was the boy who placed the blanket over her.

"Thanks," she said to him quietly.

He only smiled and then sat beside her, "By the way, my name's Athrun. Athrun Zala, and you?"

"It's Cagalli. My name's Cagalli Yula Attha," she replied.

"Cagalli…" he repeated. "That's a nice name…"

With that remark, Cagalli felt her cheeks glow red. All her life, she had never heard a compliment that profound, and yet so sincere.

Looking back at those fond memories made Cagalli feel nostalgic. Now that they are on separate ways, the flame in her heart that burned with their campfire that night has already died down. And no one but Athrun can rekindle that flame and fill her with warmth again.

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_**Sometimes I sit by the fire and reminisce**_

_**About the times that we spent in front of it**_

_**And that old flame will never be the same**_

_**Until you come back here and rekindle it**_

**_I just wanna share my heart with you again_**

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Cagalli eventually gave in to sleep, holding the picture close to her heart. The tears she shed just a while ago have dried up on her cheeks traceless. No one would have thought that she cried herself sleep. But deep within her thoughts, she can only see Athrun's smile. Feel only his touch. Hear only his voice. And love only this one man alone…

At graduation day, Athrun set her apart from her friends. He took her to the veranda to talk. The clueless Cagalli had no idea of why they were there. A long silence fell upon the two and as Cagalli was about to start a conversation, Athrun reached for her hand and placed a ring on her finger. It was silver with a garnet elegantly embedded on the middle of what seemed like cascading wings. There was no mistake, it was an engagement ring.

No words came out of her mouth even as she tried to speak. She had forgotten what she was about to tell him. Cagalli was appalled at Athrun's gift, she never expected that he was that serious about their relationship.

"That's a family heirloom, my mother and grandmother wore that," said Athrun, his cheeks flushed scarlet. "Now I'm giving it you, just as I am promising you a lifetime of love."

Cagalli's eyes welled up in tears. She could never be any happier, not with his promise of forever. "Oh, Athrun…"

He wrapped his arms around her. His embrace was tight and yet gentle, as one would hold a bouquet of wildflowers. Not too that they might fall apart and not too loose that they might slip away.

And as Athrun held his beloved wildflower close, he whispered softy in her ear, "I love you, Cagalli…"

The next thing Cagalli knew, it was morning and she was on her bed. She looked around, there was no Athrun anywhere. And then it finally struck her, he was gone. How could she forget? She even asked Meyrin to take care of him.

"It was a dream," she said quietly. "And he was there with me."

Yes, even only in her dreams, she is with him. For it is the sole place that she can hold him close. The only solace for her heart dried up in sadness and longing, yet still had tears to cry.

Cagalli looked at her bedside clock, it was three o'clock in the morning. She pondered on the dream she just had and realized how long it has been since graduation day and a lot of changes have taken place thereafter. But no matter how the world may change all around her, nothing will change Cagalli's love for Athrun… just as promised.

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_**I fall asleep at night and often see you here in my dreams**_

_**Holding me**_

_**But then I wake up and I realize that you're not here with me**_

_**It hurts so much I gotta have you back, baby**_

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End file.
